 Good morning. Welcome everybody. Now ready to start our meeting. Hopefully it will be useful to all of you who have been given an Erasmus for study destination in the UK University. This day was this session, was taught to help you with the next steps to be undertaken in order to make your mobility the best, the better possible. And before starting and in order to make it easier for everybody, both speaking and listening, I would like to check if there are among you students who really need that this session is held in English because it would be easier for the most of us, apart from Professor Anderson who is a native speaking English, it would be easier to speak in Italian. But we don't have problem. We thought to make, to do it in English in order not to repeat this session twice. And also in view of the fact that you will be living for UK. So of course you are more than able to follow the English version. So my question is, are there students who need that this session is really held completely in English? Or can we do something mixed or we can switch to Italian? Simone, how can we check these, maybe you can write in the chat, in the chat if there are among you students who really need to attend in English. Are there students who speak only English or not able to understand Italian? And excuse me, can they get into the chat if they are in streaming? They are able to get into the chat. Or do they need to be in the Webex room with us? That's just my question. Yeah, they can write in the chat. If there are students who prefer English, please give a sign on the chat, write your yes or something. Give us a sign. Otherwise, maybe we can speak Italian. Ok, in motivo per cui lo che devo è che io nella chat vedo solo me stessa e altri tre persone. Le altre persone che sono diciamo in streaming avete fatto YouTube è possibile che non riescono a reagire, a interagire e così, cioè non vuole che non lo possono ascoltare, ma non può. Ho capito cosa vuol dire perché se vedo a chi scrivo, infatti posso scrivere solo a noi. Right, quindi diciamo se ci doveva essere un componente interattivo è difficile perché non sono nella stanza, ecco, diversamente magari da una lezione, ecco, quindi. Ok, so why we try to solve this problem with the chat, I suggest to start our session in English as it was mentioned in the program and then if we can move to Italian we will do it or we can try to speak both languages that the idea is even if we we announced that this meeting will be lasting until one PM, we think that we can make it shorter because you know that there is not many of you, we are not the numbers that we used to be when we speak about the Erasmus traditional Erasmus, the European Erasmus where we have 500 students in the same meeting. This time with we are only less than 50 students, so maybe we don't have so many questions, maybe we can be a little bit quicker with with the information even if we will try to be as complete as possible. So before starting our work and giving the technical and logistic information and academic information and very important information that you are invited to to to to follow with with attention before this I leave the floor to Dr. Esapo Giallini who is the head of the International Relations Division and will give you some welcome words and the introduction to our informative session. So please Annalisa, thank you. Thank you Cristiana, good morning dear students and I start with giving you my congratulations for your result for having been an Erasmus grant holder for the UK. I am completely sure that these would be an important experience for your study and for your life and we really hope that in the next academic year we change maybe in presence even if of course you could do it also in virtual or blended mobility. Blended you know that means that you could do at least three moms in presence and others in virtual. It is the last time that the virtual mobility will be possible because it is not considered in the in the master Erasmus program. So consider that this is an opportunity also for you in case but we hope that did not occur. You can consider also the virtual mobility. And we have a range of this meeting in order as Titiana has already told you to give you all more information about different aspects, didactic, logistic, practical, and ministry events and so on. Better course you could find in our notice but maybe we know that is not enough sometimes. So please do not hesitate to ask her to ask her if you need something because this is an important experience because it is an experience outside Europe. Consider that UK now is not considered has a program countries inside the Erasmus program but as a partner countries and considering that it's you need more information than the other students that will do this experience inside the university in the European universities. Problems regarding visa certificate of English of the language and so on and so please pay particular attention to all the information that my colleague will give you. And I take the chance of course to thank you Dr. Issa Barbarosi for the academic recognition rules and procedure and Professor Issa Anderson for an overview of the current legal rules even if we know that it's not very clear that all information are now completely no but in any case we try to give you all the best. And later when we finish Morolex our meeting Professor Vesitelli who is our Vice Rector for International Relations will give you some academic relevance for the importance of Erasmus study period in the UK. And I think that it's important to start with this information so I kindly ask Dr. Issa Barbarosi I think this is now the time to speak about starting all notes so perhaps before it's better to start with my colleague Tiziana Gatti for the general overview of the management of Erasmus mobility issues considering that the importance of doing it I repeat in a non-European country. Thank you Tiziana. Okay pardon me if I interrupt just a moment I have a message from the only student who is actually in the room with us and has now left she said that the students who are connected via YouTube are not able to send messages or write so if you want this to be an interactive session they would need to receive this the link that we are currently using. Alice Deriu who was in the room with us until a couple of minutes ago somehow got the the link by mistake perhaps I sent it to her I apologize so if you if you want them only to be connected through YouTube they won't be able to ask questions because we won't be able to see them okay okay in other words it would need to be invited into this room in order to interact okay thank you okay thank you professor Anderson so Tiziana okay so let's try to start and in any case we will leave the floor to the question we will answer the question that we will receive during the session at the end of all the panelist speech so please go ahead with writing your question and we will you will have time until the end of our of our information information session so let's start with that and as Annalisa just said congratulations for having been given the grant I don't know if you know this but you have been competing with a lot of your colleagues because we got a lot of application when we open our call for this UK destination that is a very we are very pleased about that because of course we work for that to offer this opportunity at the same time we are sorry for the students who did not manage to to get the grant which doesn't mean that they didn't serve it but it's just a matter of of scores that on the basis of which the the destination have been assigned so I say this just to to to invite you to to try to do your best to get the best out of these experience and to make this it is important that we follow the MPSH's procedure to to to to achieve credits abroad in your UK university and before that to to do to organize your stay in the best way in order to to to have the time to enjoy the experience fully so after that you have been given the destination what we did in the office is to nominate you at the host university so we wrote a message to our UK partners where we announced that you had been given the grant and that you'd be living in the next academy here for for for their university and we asked them kindly to send you all the information to organize your stay this is the crucial point in all the the story of your mobility grant because it's the start of your connection with the host university so hopefully most of you on all of you I would prefer all of you but surely most of you should have received a message from the UK university where it is said congratulations on the welcome or something like that and after these kind words there are some technical issues that you must answer to and some documents that you have to send back and instruction on on how to apply and how and when send all the requested documents in general this information package that's that's how we we use to call it this information package contains an application form where you must put your your data and you must express the period when after you like to stay at the host university and some other personal information moreover there is a learning agreement where you must express you must you must inform about the courses and the didactic activities that you like to take at the host university and there could be a accommodation form because all the university participating in the the Rasmus program even if we know that for the UK this is a story which is going to come to an end shortly but but for this year still for this year they are participating in the Rasmus program and then following the Rasmus program rules which also imply that they are the the university are are obliged let's say to to offer you some accommodation proposal sometimes this could be accommodation in a campus where the university has a university campus or some proposal some offers for private accommodation or some solution some different solution depending on on where you you are ready to to to go to stay so this information package containing I repeat application form learn agreement and accommodation form should have been received by you in the in the last days if this this did not yet happen please wait some additional days and after that please write us to Erasmus point out at unicy point it that is our email address for communication with you about your Rasmus grant and tell us that you were not you were not contacted by the UK university because this could be happened for for some kind of problems like wrong or an old email address that been contacted by us or some new modalities of nomination that we were not aware of and that should that we should attend in order to properly nominate you because sometimes we just send an email with your contact details and data but some more more times we need to go in in an online platform and fill in some forms well and nominate you this way so sometimes we don't do it right but we have to to repeat the procedure so if you were not contacted by the host university until now it will not be contacted let's say until the end of this week please write out because there could be a communication problem with them so this is the first thing as you understand because the contact with the host university is the main pillar of all this story because without that if you are not accepted by them and if your plan of study is not accepted by them all the rest of our talk is quite unusual so please take care to receive the message and to respond to all the requested documents that they are asking you in time and that's your the best thing and said these said these there are other aspects which must be considered by you and one of these it is let's say the easiest one is the connection with our office and in in the end the our office is in charge only let's say of the financial aspect linked to your grant as you could see from the website all the students who have been given a destination will be also granted with the financial contribution both the european one coming from the the rasmus fund the european rasmus funds and the ministerial one coming from the ministry of education so all students uh i mean sorry i made a mistake so all students have been given the rasmus european grants and all the students who were in the in the in the right and say in the in the foreseen position with respect to do to their income were given the ministerial fund because the ministerial fund is is based on the income of the students so both the fact that they got it or didn't get it and the amount of money which is which is given are linked to this data that is on your student profile but of course and we we got enough funds to grant all the students with the destination with a financial contribution and moreover especially for students going to uk the university of sienna granted a special and an extra fund of 500 euro not per month but in total which will be given to all the students living to uk because as professor Anderson who kind of accepted to intervene in our session will tell you afterwards that there could be and there will be costs um special costs for students going to uk due to the to the new rules after the brexit so in order to help you with this extra cost of the experience of study abroad and the university and up will will grant 500 euro additional 500 euro to each students living to uk uh still speaking about money i i tell you even if it is written in our notice of selection that is still on the web but that i can't invite you to read and to refer to always because that's the that's the basis of of your of your grant of your mobility grant management but i i i will repeat how this money will be given and and paid to you so the the grant will be paid on the basis of the over financial agreement that you will be asked to fill and sign before leaving normally we ask to send this document about two weeks before departure this is for two reasons the first one is that we will give you money uh quite quite soon after the the signature after the after the uh financial agreement uh exchange and the second reason is because at that time i mean two weeks before departure it will be quite sure that you will be actually leaving and you will be quite sure about the dates of your state mostly the departure date and the coming back because um on that document you must include these two dates and on the basis of this period we will calculate the actually due grant because what you see on the web is the maximum granted to will be given if you really stay the months which are indicated in the same table but if you stay short the period of course the grant will be paid on the basis of the actual effective day of your state so on the financial agreement you must indicate what you think will be the period of your state of course things can change especially in this period we know how how how we are we are we must be ready to to change our plans in a minute but but on the financial agreement you must try to be as real as possible with respect to the period because that is the basis on that is the basis for for your for the payment of your grant the grant is paid for what concern the european part is paid the 80 percent as first amount and this paid after the two show us that you actually left that you actually are in uk so you will send from from the uk university where you you will be at the time you will send us a certificate signed a stamp by the host university which states the date of your arrival of your open start of your mobility and you will send it to us to the same email email address which i mentioned before erasmus point out at can we see point at t we will receive the certificate saying that you are actually left and that you are in the uk university together with the proof of your travel that could be the boarding pass or the visa the visa staff but we would prefer the boarding pass so we will be sure that you are actually left and that you are there and we will soon pay you the 80 percent of the total amount of the european part and they will pay and for the one of you who had the right to receive also the ministerial part we will pay you the half of that still calculate it on the basis of the period that you can finance financial agreement after that you finish your period at the end of your mobility period you will you will have to go back to the same office or person or whatever who signed stated the departure the start date of your mobility and you must put in the same certificate the end date of your mobility and you will send it to us after that you finish your period and on the basis of that there is a nice instrument given by european commission that is called mobility tool we will put the dates on that on this on this instrument on this tool and this will will tell us the exact amount of the due grant and so the balance will be paid after that you conclude that you finish your mobility period for the financial part simula masking simula if there is something else about that because she's the one making the actual payment so she's smiling so that could be a good sign but only i i added that for the one of you who had the dsu grant please refer to their offices because there is another financial help from coming from them that is namely international mobility grant but we don't we do not deal with that so please refer directly to the agenda regionale the studio universitario and ask them how to to move how to do to get this extra contribution from them and okay that's all about money i think and then if you have questions please write down on the chat that hopefully now was properly thanks simula and and that's all about money and i mentioned another important point which i read in your numerous email that is about the period which i mentioned with referring to the to the to the money and this is a matter of money the period that you stay abroad but it's not just that because of course the period that you will decide to stay that can be the one mentioned in the table where there is the list of manipulation number the destination and the number of months could be that that period that is already agreed among the university but could be also a period a shorter period and cannot be longer but could be shorter so in case that you if you would like to intend to stay six months instead of the none of the nine months that you you were given you can do it for for our office this is not a problem we we save some money in the end but of course the first the first the first i don't know the first person most it's not the first office to be to be consulted to be to be informed about your intention to shorten the period is the host university and this is a very important word host because you are you are hosted there so you must respect the rules and any any any change that you want to make in your original plan must be firstly approved by the host university so if you intend to shorten your period and i think this is the case of many of you and please refer as first to the host university then if they agree with your intention and this is coherent with the academic calendar of that specific university you will write us that you like to intend that you will like you like to shorten your period so we know that we we have more money maybe for some some other grants or some other user for for other of your colleagues and of course you will write these in the financial agreement which already mentioned before so it is possible to shorten the period this is a question which many of you ask us about and still about the period i mentioned another important issue and then i think that is not much more to say and i will leave the floor to professor versichelli who in the meantime joined us and i would like to mention the case that regards quite a number of you of the both assignations because some of you i would say about 20 are given both the european erasmus grant and the uk erasmus grant so they are they are such good student that they manage to to to win both the mobilities and in the case of u k similar reminds me that that i should say mobility rather than grant because for the uk students all of you got also the grant but this is not the same for the european ones because in that case we don't have such a huge amount of money at least for the moment so not all of you have both the destination and the grant so we should speak about mobility anyway and there are some of you are about 20 students who got both the the destination and the european one and the uk one for the same academy here that is the 21 22 academy here what to do with the students we cannot decide for you and we are we are happy that you could also enjoy both the opportunities but but you must be very careful because of course you cannot overlap the field so either you are in uk or you are in in madrid so you cannot be both places so you should be so good to organize your your year of study combining both the period and both the academy calendar i don't know if this is possible so from your theoretical point of view this is possible but in practical terms you must be you must be you must plan your your your periods of study carefully in order to avoid overlap of course in order to make it coherent with the with the with the idea behind that that is to to to get a number of credits and to have experience abroad and to to enjoy the best of your possibilities so i don't know if this is feasible actually feasible if you have to to to live twice for two different host universities so i invite all of you who got both the destination to think about it and once that you decide once you have decided what to do to inform us and in case to withdraw one of the two two mobilities and to enjoy the other one okay that's all about it i would leave the the floor to professor versi heli because the next issue after after his intervention the next issue will be the the one of professor renderson who will inform us about the procedure and rules to enter and stay in uk and after that it will be our colleague our kind colleague barbara rossi from the student's office who will tell will inform us about the academic recognition that is another very important aspect of behind the mobility opportunity so and if you are ready professor versi heli i leave you the floor and thank you for joining us i don't know if you can hear me or this is too loud okay thanks it's um sorry for that that's um position i got at the last minute i don't know how to to work with this so thank you for for inviting me to these uh meeting this is an organizational meeting and when organizational meetings are um so dense and and full of information i know that uh in my capacity let's say of representative of the governing bodies and representative of director i don't have to speak too long which is always a problem to me but um in any case i wanted to uh to be present uh not just to to bring a formal um address which is of course something i i please to do because this is an important moment when we are going to finalize the process of selection to any kind of mobility scheme this is in a way a celebration and i think Annalisa and Tiziana already celebrated this uh thanking uh all the applicants and thanking particularly those who are going to um to take this opportunity but i think that this is a peculiar moment first of all because this is an exceptional call uh and secondly because this is in a way the late call uh for uh keeping uh leg of our mobility in uk a late call but not the last one um probably the last one uh or one of the the few uh residual uh calls sponsored by you money because uh as you perfectly know after the brexit we will uh not be able anymore to find officially uh from the uh Erasmus uh scheme any mobility to uk we we still have to to to get is this attitude but uh we should remember that uk is no more member and this was as you perfectly know a choice from the british people so we have to respect uh we are not happy about that of course because we do believe that the uk will remain and has to remain an important partner uh an important european partner geographically speaking if not politically speaking and uh so we will do our best to make this not the last call but the first of a new uh generation of mobility schemes which will be uh specifically oriented to uh to have a line of priority uh between our universities in this case sienna and the best uh uk universities this is not just an attempt we are working quite hard and this call is a good evidence for that because we we did organize this uh mobility uh perspective this mobility opportunity in a few weeks and we were able to uh to keep a good number of uh british uh partners uh of course tiziana has the numbers here uh what is important is to just stress uh that uh we are uh keeping this partnership before the future is not just for this year so um let's say that the the keyword is even in this case like in the pandemic resilience uh we have to be resilient because we believe that the partnership with uh with british university is a is a crucial part is a strategic partnership for us and so we thank you we thank you for keeping this uh goal uh alive and keeping this goal uh viable for the time being for the future but of course let's uh do our best all together to make this uh this perspective true and particularly next let's help each other with the process we are leaving uh the Erasmus although this is a call organized with uh thanks to the Erasmus resources but we are going to have a sort of uh resuluse sort of incognita and under this point of view uh i think that uh the use of any kind of feedback and the use of any kind of information from your experience will be uh uh fundamental uh to uh improve our capability to cooperate with british universities uh this is the main message then there's a second message i just want to to launch uh for uh for you uh since you have an important role because in a way you are the pioneers of a new way of uh cooperation uh and in any case this is a particular moment for for all of us uh i don't need to uh to refresh you about how difficult to watch to organize mobility in this in this last uh let's say couple of semesters uh let's take this as an opportunity uh to make a a new win win uh uh scenario and the new win win scenario is the fact that since we wanted to keep going with the physical mobility to the best of our university venues and partners um organizing a perfect system of um interaction is the best way to invest our time in this uh in this difficult uh in this difficult moment uh for us is a joy to think that on september or maybe october i don't know what you are you are planning your your first move uh we have a new relevant bunch of people group of people uh ready to go uh to important universities to complete uh significant uh experience so let's take this as an opportunity to to make uh not just a better mobility but even a more let's say a new european mobility even with uk this is uh an important message i think that of course i skip all the other messages that uh the usual uh let's say disclaimer try to invest your time try to study try to try to get the best from your experience i i do uh think that you you you know already what is the the very sense of this but this year is important because after uh the depression of of the pandemic this is an opportunity to start and to start again with a new generation of a mobile student and particularly those who are getting to uh uh uk i'm very happy about that and i wish you uh uh the best for your experience as a university of sienna because you're still senes students abroad in in this case in uk thank you uh to all of you thank you luka thank you very much and for your incorrigible words and is professor anerson is ready i will leave her the floor as in the program and to mention to talk about the specific rules to enter and stay in uk and we we we discussed this issue a little bit before our meeting and we came to the conclusion that the we have some some certainties and she will tell us much better than i could but we we also there are still some remaining uncertainties let's say so as i said at the beginning please students refer to the message they will get directly from the ghost university even if of course what professor anderson will tell you is very important also to to to try to prevent the possible problems that could could come in the next future while you are organized organizing your stay thank you professor anderson for your really really important help with these like that okay and and and thank you very much titian and and and colleagues for for um sharing uh in real time all of the information that that you've received um as professor vert zikami said um i think it's really important to um to you know take stock of the fact that we're extremely lucky to be able to be be be sending a significant number of students to the to the uk next year and and there's a very concrete um you know message i think on the part of the of the university of sienna and this specific um you know uh grant for 500 euro to help out with um you know some of the the extra requirements that are are now involved so i just wanted to say um that's certainly very appreciated on the part of those of us who um you know are are strongly invested in in keeping that these opportunities open um the i think the the the important thing um as i as i move forward here is is to say um i think that um as as titiana said most of you we know have have received um an assignment for up to nine months um however many of the universities in the uk um certainly those that i've been in contact birmingham for example but i see also um edin burrow has has said similar things are willing available to reduce the period of your state one term um in order to um if um if you determine that staying for nine months um is um is too difficult for you because of some of the new visa requirements i think most of you are aware by now that there um that um brexit has reintroduced the problem of visas in order to be able to stay as a student in the uk the the good news as far as um as we've been able to ascertain and i i feel pretty certain about this um um by reading you know um the information from more than one university is that a stay of up to six months is not a particularly particularly more difficult than it would have been um a year ago before brexit in other words um you you will need to to be in contact with your um with your destination university to check that if you want to reduce the period that they will allow you to do so um but um my understanding is that the procedure for under six months um is relatively straightforward first of all it doesn't require a a specific um official certification on the part of the immigration service um for under six months you will need to respect the um eventual requirements for certification at your your host university um some of the universities again i make reference to to those that i'm following myself um are um are accepting a declaration for under six months on part of on the part of our language center or um you know that or your or your on the basis of your of your of your um certificate historical showing that that you have a b2 level okay so um so i guess the the the important thing is that that there are um um fewer fewer issues about about immigration and and and and language requirements if you stay less than six months if you stay more than six months it is more complicated um and i will give you what i'd like to do is to it is to give you a sense of what it would mean to stay more than six months so that you can decide whether or not you um you want to go that route okay whether or not you you you feel that you um would be able to um you know to to do the visa um the so-called student visa for more than six months um what i've seen so far certainly um certainly the the materials that that um were sent through to me um on on tiziana's part is that the um the universities that are involved in these exchanges are being very supportive okay they've got they've got actually a dedicated um not just for the erasmus exchanges but also dedicated uh immigration and visa service supporting it is true that when i've tried to getting contact by um by email or phone there can be long waits for example i haven't been able to speak directly with royal halloween with whom i with my follower um um um um an exchange yes so there could be some delays in getting that information but they are definitely um organized so what does it look like um if you if you stay less than six months um i'm going to share if it's okay um with the proviso that this is some of the information may be only um specific to that university but i think it might be helpful to share a few slides um received from birmingham it's one of the um but but about um aspects that that um are um have to do in in in general um with the um the the the visa situation would that be okay tiziana to do that i would need to um be able to to share my screen let me see if i can do that i think so i'll ask simona it is more not possible to share the screen for professor and yeah she's doing right now okay i'm doing it now okay super okay so what i'm going to do is um okay so um um i i want to i want to clarify as mentioned before that that this is information received from birmingham which means that um where it's specifically for birmingham i'm just going to slip skip over it because i what i would like to do is is to to share the the common threads this this idea of the visa for you know the situation for less than six months and for more than six months okay um and um and um so as you can see this is an immigration update for visa requirements for e u and e e a nationals i know that there are a few students who are not e u or e e a nationals um certainly among the um people who have been assigned for sale okay if if you are not from an e u country um then some of this information is not pertinent to you you may need a visa for less than six months and um and it would be very important to um uh in other words the requirements for less than six months may be different are different from you it'd be very important for you to to clarify with your host university let me just i'm gonna just focus on a few of these slides in order to clarify the difference between under six months and over six months okay so as of the first of january okay the the um the um e u nationals are no are no longer you know we're no longer part of a of a um you know of a free movement um um regime and therefore there is the issue of whether or not a visa or um is needed there's a significant difference as i mentioned for staying for less than six months and staying for more than six months i'm going to talk first about less than six months okay so less okay so um this is just to remind you that the freedom of movement um you know uh but which is part of the common market is no longer in place now here's what's here's the first um um terminological difference okay if you are an italian citizen or a citizen in another EU country then for less than six months okay you have you uh what interests you is what's called the standard visitor visa a visitor visa if you are an an EU national okay and you intend to stay for more than six months you need to make a student visa application okay before traveling to the UK okay so i want to start with the the less than six months situation okay one thing that's necessary to keep in mind is that whether you go for less than six months or more than six months you will need to be getting a passport and okay if you don't already have one you're actually okay to go to the UK with your identity card you know your your targeted until the first of October but to be quite honest personally i i i i would not leave without having i i believe that you you need to have the the passport in in the case to stay there okay so um you will need to to to get get the passport okay now um here they make a distinction between nationals who need a visa and nationals who don't need a need a visa and this is one of the points on which we still need to have some clarification because in some of the material that i read it indicates that everybody even an EU citizen needs the visitor visa and in other ones it sounds like it's possible actually just to go to the border you know go to the airport um with your passport and um and and apply there directly so it's very important for you to to know that under six months is is is quite straightforward it's it's not a difficult procedure but i'm not a hundred percent sure about this information which where it says um non visa nationals because um because this seems to indicate that it's even easier than um than than i thought to to go for six months but um but i'm not a hundred percent sure in any case i'm going to describe the the the the visa for under six months um on the assumption you might need to get the visa okay um those of you who are from non EU countries you will need it if you're from Iran um uh you know um ex-soviet republics um Pakistan i believe um there might be someone you will need you will need definitely even for less than six months you will need the the the visitor visa okay now the the standard it the standard visit visitor visa if you need one okay um is for it it's for less than six months okay don't worry about this this has nothing so i'm assuming at the moment for the purposes of the discussion that even if you're an EU citizen you you you may need the visa okay um um okay And this is really good, okay, if you need to complete a study abroad program as part of an overseas course, and it's less than six months, this is what you need, okay? So, okay. Under this visa, there's a few things you can't do. No poison stays, okay? So if you go for six months, you can't stay there more, okay? You're not allowed to work in the UK. This is a difference from previous years, because now the UK is not part of the EU, okay? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So the important thing is to know that technically, if you go on a, you know, for less than six months, you can't work while you're there even part-time, okay? And you can't extend it once you're there, okay? When the say intended to study PewDiePie, the same as, it doesn't vary a lot, but if we find that in front of them, okay? Here we go. If you are going into the UK quest, though, we're going to have to talk about it, because it's already been said that in the person who found a part of the EU, it's not visa-nations, and if so, it's a lot easier because if you have a passport with Egypt, not that with personal data, let's say, it should be, let's say, quite easy, it will go through these e-gates, okay, and then you should present, let's say, with some documents, let's say, of support, okay? In order to, what you will need is your passport, okay, okay, and it has to, here it is, it has to be valid for the whole stay, okay? When the quest to ja taglia la testatura, anche se dicono che fino a prima autobre poi entrare con la carte d'identità, in realtà ti serve poi questo, per support, per starchy, okay? And you may be asked, okay, to prove that, so you're going to need to have some documentation, okay, that you've been accepted, okay, so you'll need a letter of acceptance on the letterhead paper from the host university, e questo lo avrete sen salto, però magari, se me avete un dossier insomma, avete questa documentazione con voi, okay, so you're going to need, you know, showing that you've been accepted for the period, et cetera, okay? You will need a letter from the University of Siena, okay, or some sort of documentation, malo avrete che questo, che questo period di studio ha a che fare con il vostro percorso qui, okay, il vostro corso di studio, okay? You may be required to show that you can support yourself and your, your dependence non ci sono, non avrete persone a carico, okay? You may be required to show that you can support yourself while you're there, okay? Questo vuol dire in pratica che avete bisogno di far vedere che avete, diciamo, una certa sommata nei contocorrenti, okay? Ho visto, diciamo, un secondo dall'università che indicano che può essere anche una qualche documentazione che riguarda i contocorrenti di genitori. Queste cose, evidentemente, li dovete apurare meglio, diciamo, con il vostro diciamo, diciamo, quest'università. It will be important, obviously, if you, Piziana mentioned the financial agreement, you will, you know, before two weeks before the departure, so that money as well is part of, you know, what you can show that you have, okay? Quindi avrete una qualche documentazione anche facendo vedere penso noctiziana che è stato trasferito o verrà trasferito questa soma iniziale di 80% o eccetera, okay? We used to do that for the non-used students before the Brexit. Right. We give them a certificate, we ask, we would say that they are a RADMU student, they are allowed to spend a mobility period that we receive a grant up to, so we're gonna, we do it quite usually. Right, so presumably a similar declaration now would be appropriate also for the EU students going to the UK, okay? So this would be an extension, you know, to EU students of something that the University of Singapore is already doing, okay? You, it would be appropriate to show your return trip, okay? So if you already have your return trip and you've paid for it, then it would be good to have an indication about that. You'll need, but you'll have this from the university that some form of accommodation has been organized, okay? This one down here at the bottom, you don't need to worry about this. This is for certain technical subjects and none of us are related to that because it's like veterinarian or medical. I don't think any of those are, or certain technical. So this last one is not of interest to this ATIA, A-T-A-S. You don't need to worry about it, okay? In other words, you will need to make sure and you'll need to check this with your, with your host university. You will need to have certain documentation showing that you, that, you know, that you're going there, that this is part of, you know, that you've been accepted by the host university, that the University of Siena agrees that this is part of your course of study, that you're able to, you know, support, that you have some funding, okay? And that accommodation has been raised, okay? This is what, at the moment, I understand is needed for the, for the visa for less than six months. As you can see, this, this, there is one doubt which is whether or not you need to make an application ahead of time or if it's sufficient to do it at the border. This, as I mentioned, some universities have been clearer about it and some have been less clear, so you'll need to make sure to check with your university and it may be, to make sure that you do it at the right time, okay? The less than six months stay, in other words, for the immigration. This is about it, okay? So it's not a, it's not a big deal. However, it's very important to get everything done in time and to have the documentation in the application or documentation done in time. And so it's really important to check with your university, your host university. This is a separate thing with regard to the language of requirements of your university, your host university for students who are there for less than six months. There you need to check what those requirements are and interface directly with your host university about them because they're different from university to university and they're related to, to the level of study, okay? In some cases, as I mentioned, Birmingham, they will simply accept a declaration on the part of the language center or someone like myself who teaches a B2 level course saying that you've got a B2 level, okay? That's all they need. Edinburgh, for example, I think there's three or four people going to Edinburgh. I see Edinburgh has an interesting situation because they clarify that if you want to take courses in the first and second year, there are certain language requirements. But if you want to take courses that are in the third and fourth year, certain courses, you have to have a language certification of a certain point. So there, for example, I saw that this is Edinburgh, for example. I know that no, this is not Edinburgh. Hang on a moment. Where was Edinburgh? This is Oxford. Excuse me, Professor Anderson. Just a moment. Barbara, can you hear me? Barbara, do you see? Yeah, okay. Yeah, sorry, just a moment. As you said that you will have to leave the meeting at 12. So I don't know. This is very important information from Professor Anderson. But if you need to speak before, please let me know on the chat because we, okay. Thank you. Sorry for interrupting. Okay, I'm sorry. I can't find my Edinburgh file at the moment. But basically, those of you from Edinburgh have already received it. But basically, there's a distinction if you, they have different requirements according. But those are internal requirements for being able to attend certain courses. Okay. So basically, that's the situation. If you're going for less than six months, okay. If you're going for less than six months, in other words, you only have to present language certifications, international language certifications, if required by your university. It's not part of the visa situation, okay. If you're going for more than six months, it is. Okay. If you go for more than six months, you have a different procedure. Okay. And this procedure is the so-called student visa or student route visa. This is for more than six months. And here, there are requirements that are actually on the part of the UK Immigration Service, okay. And these are more complicated, okay. And I'm going to just give an overview. And then if you decide you want to stay for more than nine months, you should follow the exact procedure indicated by your host university. So what changes if you want to stay for more than six months? And this is, in other words, if you want to stay the whole year, this is valid both for people who are EU nationals, so Italian citizens or citizens of EU countries, but also for students who are from nationals of other countries like Pakistan or Iran or whatever, okay. So if you are an international student with the University of Siena, or if you're an Italian student, it's the same, that the procedure is similar, okay. Basically, you have to give yourself time. And you have to within obtain a student visa, okay, which requires making an application for this ahead of time. And you start the procedure by receiving from your university, your host university, a thing that is called CAS, C-A-S, okay. It's a number that they give to students who need a student visa because they're staying more than six months, and it means certification for application for study or something, C-A-S. They will provide this CAS to you and it also has some other information that accompanies it, okay, about what they expect about language requirements and how long you'll be staying and the fact, for example, that you will be taking courses because you have to take at least, I think, 30 credits or be registered for 30 credits or something. Anyway, they basically give you this CAS, okay. And that's what's written here, CAS for studies, okay. So the first step is that they give you this, okay. But in the meantime, you need to get organized, okay, because you will need, as part of the procedure for requesting the visa, okay, to produce a series of documents and also make some payments, okay. So the first is that, pardon me, the first is that there's an application fee, okay, okay, and the application fee for this visa, the visa that takes longer than six months, is 348 pounds, okay, so it's a little bit over 350 euro, okay. For, by the way, the one that is less than six months, there, if you do need the visa for less than six months, I think it's like 95 euro or something, you know, 95 pounds. I'm not 100% certain that, as mentioned, it looks like maybe you might not even need it if you're an EU citizen, but that one, in any case, is not too expensive, okay, it's reasonable. This one is 348 for the, for, to request the student visa, because they have to do interviews and stuff with you, okay, which can be online interviews. And in addition, you have to pay 470 pounds for what's called the, for the National Health Service. If you stay for more than six months, you have to be registered with the National Health Service. By the way, if you stay less than six months, you'll need to check about, in any case, about health insurance coverage, okay, because you may, you may need to take out health insurance coverage for less than six months, okay. Again, I've seen different things at different universities about this, so follow the instructions for your university, okay. But if you stay for more than six months, then you have to. So you're talking about already 348 plus 470, okay, and that's obligatory because you need the visa and you need to pay for the National Health Service, okay. And the other thing that you have to worry about in terms of cost for the visa is that there's the English language requirement cost for the visa is quite specific, okay. There are only certain exams that the immigration service accepts, okay. And those exams, I think there's five of them. Not all of them are offered in Italy, but several of them are, okay. And there's specific exams that the immigration service accepts. The one that seems most, one of them is the ELTS, ELTS Academic, but it has to be an ELTS, okay, done in what's called an authorized testing center, okay. So if you need to do the visa for more than six months, you need to follow the instructions for what type of language exam certification is accepted carefully. For example, from what I understand, they don't accept the Cambridge, which is absurd, but that's because it's not at the moment on this list of five certificates, okay. So this list of five certificates includes ELTS, it includes a certain toyful bit, it includes Pearson, which I don't know, I think it includes a trinity of some sort of trinity, but they have to be certain ones, ones that are given by authorized centers. Now if you're going this route, don't worry, you can do it, okay. For example, I went on and looked for the ELTS, okay, which is the one that I'm most familiar with. The ELTS Academic, the special one for the immigration service, is easily available to be done at the British Council in Rome, okay. That's the authorized testing place in Italy, okay. And there are plenty of possibilities, there were a lot of possibilities to do it, in that they have a lot of dates, okay, and you get your results pretty quickly, okay. So if you decide to go this direction, then it can be done, it would be done in, for example, in Rome, that was the ELTS in Rome, for example. There is a cost, of course, right. And for example, this ELTS at the British Council in Rome at the official testing center is another, is I believe 265 euro, okay. So I'm just, what I'd like to share with you is simply because this I think is important for everybody, you need to calculate, you know, these costs, right, because you would have the application fee cost, the immigration health surcharge cost of 470, and then you would need to have one of these official recognized by the immigration service, okay, which would be another 265, okay. So this is more costly and you have to do it in time, okay, because you have to make, you have to then present this, these materials for your immigration interview. And the interview, if I understand correctly, can also be done online, but, and it's through the British Embassy, okay. They will also require you to show, again, some sort of bank statement, either your own, your own bank account or your, or your parents' bank account, showing that, that you've, that you have money for, you know, to pay per month for your accommodation and stuff. You don't need to worry about this, you see where it says first year of tuition fees, you know, that's not a problem because you're an Erasmus student, so you don't pay tuition fees to the host university. You just need to be able to show that you, that you have, you know, financial coverage for accommodation and the same, it's the same issue that we talked about when we talked about the six-months visa, okay. In short, okay, this is, and then they say, you know, it can take between three, three weeks, it could, they give themselves up to two months, but when I talked to people in Birmingham, they said that it's usually quicker in, in, in EU countries. That's basically the difference, okay. I don't know if I've been clear about it. In other words, these specific language tests you need, if you have, if you need to do the student visa through, with the, with the prior application and, and, and the visa interview for more than six months, okay. If it's less than six months, then what's important is that you, that you follow the instructions for the visitor visa or if they say non-visa national, but whatever they say is needed for less than six months, okay. That doesn't mean you may still need to present something, you know, you will need to present something having to do with language requirements. According to your university, it could be just a, just a declaration from our language center or it could be, but you saw that already when you applied a certificate of some, of some sort, okay. I think that's basically what I wanted to mention here. For example, I think there might already be this, for example, and therefore it should be facilitated already for the, for the, for the student, for this, for more than six months. Many of you, for the part of what you've seen, I'm not in the application, in some of the questions that you've seen, I have, in general, what we call the level of language to be able to also run this, let's say, for more than nine months, for more than six months. Unfortunately, Brexit has created, let's say, pallets where there were no before, okay. As far as European citizens are concerned, fortunately, not so many have been made, let's say, very accessible from what I see for six months, more than six months, we want planning and we want, let's say, let's say, to follow up on the, let's say, the indication that you will see from your host university as regards the case of the student visa for more than six months, okay. I think, I think, I think it's okay, the important thing is to see how you want to orient yourself in this kind of practice. And if you want to, let's say, for nine months, that you move now quickly, seven more times, okay. Because I've seen that these, these, these IALTS, for example, if you can do it quietly, still in age or junior, there were multiple, I mean, it was possible in some way, okay. I don't know if that's clear, I hope. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you so much. This was very informative and complete and okay. And I'm very helpful information. I don't know if Professor Anderson can stay also for the question time, if you can remain connected, it would be helpful, because maybe there would be questions about that. But for the moment, I have to leave the floor to Barbara Rose, because she had told me that she should leave at 12. So hopefully she has time enough to, to tell us about the academic recognition part. Thank you, Barbara. Thank you. And good morning. What about the recognition of Erasmus activities? The recognition of the deductive activities to be carried out abroad is the responsibility of the teaching boards, which are in charge of verifying the, the coherence of the programs to be carried out abroad with the fields and the scientific disciplines of the deductive system of the individual ports of study to which the student mobility belongs. All the exams in your course of study, including the subject chosen by the student, may be taken aboard regardless of their location in the same year of the course in which the mobility takes place. So after the end of the mobility, you will have to send to Erasmus office the Erasmus certificate with the rival and the partial dates and the transcript of records sent by the host university afterwards. Also the return travel ticket. In, in learning agreement form, you will find the after mobility part, but it will be replaced by the transcript of records. So there is no need to fill in it. The recognition procedures will only be activated upon delivery of the transcript of records. So in order to start the credit recognition procedure, you will have to send the transcript issued by the host university to the Erasmus office and also to the student office of your department. Then the student office will forward the transcript to the Erasmus reference of the department who together with the teaching board will evaluate the transcript of records in which generally you could find a table comparing local grades to the ECTS scale and convert the grades according to the ECTS conversion tables published on the university website. A few, few words on the number of credits. If you have taken more credits abroad than the number of credits required for the corresponding exam in your, in your course of study, the additional credit will be recorded as excess credit, as redundant. On the other hand, if you have obtained a number of credit lower than those foreseen for the corresponding exam in Siena, in any case up to a maximum of two credits, the number of credits of the corresponding exam will be assigned on the basis of the approval of the learning agreement and the equivalent workload carried out within the deadlines 14 by the teaching board. As we said, teaching boards are responsible for approving the mobility study plan. This approval must be carried out prior to the student's departure. Only in the event of documented difficulties on the part of the student in submitting the study plan within the specified deadlines, the approval process must in any case be defined within two months of departure. Then any additions or integration to the examination program carried out abroad may only requested by the teaching board in exceptional and duly justified cases and must be made known to the student when the study plan is approved. Then there are also some departments, such as the Department of Political Science, which award two credits for the internship type for participation in the RASMOS programs. But for all information on the recognition of credit, you can write to the student offices of your department. Another thing is the student can also ask for the recognition of a part of the credits 14 for the days. In this case, when submitting the learning agreement, the student must highlight their research and thesis preparation activity he intends to carry out in the host university and must submit together with the learning agreement a declaration from his supervisor for in the central element of his thesis project. The student at the end of his mobility period must deliver to the student offices of our university a signed and stamped certificate issued by the host for in university, indicating the actual duration of the stay abroad and the execution of the thesis research activity corresponding to the provision of the learning agreement. Together with this certification, the supervisor must write a statement on the activities carried out abroad by the student, certifying a day full consistency that can be recognized. The certificates referred to in this point are forwarded to the competent teaching board for everyone and for me that's it. Thank you Barbara. As Barbara said, please refer to the specific office of your department even if the information that Barbara said are general and are valid for all the departments and in addition to what she said, you can also read on the website there is a section named the recognition of the practical activities taken abroad and that is an official act from the Senato Academico approved by the Senato Academico University of Siena where all the details are mentioned including the difference of two credits which Barbara just said and still about the subject I'd like to remind that in UK the credits are double so if you see that an exam consists of 20 credits it must be considered 10 a CTS credit so you must read 10 so there must be divided into parts and it's the house and about the subject also I didn't mention it at the beginning but when you receive the first message from or the first one of the message from the host university most of times and hopefully it is included a course catalogue from from which you can choose the course that will be part of your learning agreement proposal to be submitted to the teaching board through the student's policies so if this is not the case the courses can be found on the web but most of times you should receive this list or you should be guided to the catalogue course on the web by the host university so that makes things easier because it must be said that sometimes not all the courses are available for the random students so maybe that your choice will be somehow restricted to some courses about these I think we said all Barbara I don't see anything else to be said about this subject of academic revolution I don't know if there will be questions so in case there will be questions you will not be with us anymore because you have to leave maybe I will redirect the question if I'm not able to answer properly to the student's office of their department okay thank you for your very helpful presentation and I will leave the floor now as in the program to the to our friends of the Rasmus group Rasmus to the network Siena we have Gerlando and Sarah and they will tell us about some about the student's point of view regarding the Rasmus story and very not only nice to hear them but in the end they are more concretely useful for the organization of your of your studies so I leave the floor to them and thank you for being with us as always thank you hi everyone can you hear me I hope so okay perfect um hi everyone good morning everyone I'm Sarah and I'm the vice president of the Asensi and Jess today I'm with the president Gerlando hi everyone and we will try to explain to you what does it mean to carry out on Rasmus mobility but actually what comes in the practical view of your Erasmus we prepared the presentation okay let's see if I can share my screen hope you can see it okay can you see the screen just give me okay perfect um so we wanted to start with a quote that is your Erasmus starts now why because from the moment on that you can you start your mobility you start already thinking about your mobility then you already know that your Erasmus is going to start is going to begin and from this presentation we want to try to explain to you what is ESN so what does what do we do in our volunteering part and who we are so that when you carry out your mobility when you go on your Erasmus you can find your ESN section that is the nearest one near to you so talking about ESN who are we we are the biggest european student network we are 528 local section in 41 countries and we are many many volunteers later I will tell you I will tell you and show you a map where you can see all the all the Erasmus section um what are our values our values are unity and diversity diversity in unity but what one of the most important value is students helping students why because we are students um I for example I'm a student I did my Erasmus and when I came back from my Erasmus I was like I want to carry out also another mobility but in my home university and there I found out ESN which is this group this small group of people it depends on the city in sienna we are a very small group of people we are 20 30 people and we are students that want to help students it's also it's everything it's voluntary so it's uh there it's not mandatory another value is the international dimension of life why international dimension of life because we are many many people all around the world actually uh in from an international point of view as I told you before we are 528 local section in 41 countries so here already from the map you can see that we are spread all over the world also in ESN also in countries that are known part of EU then from an Italian point of view in Italy we are 54 local section in 47 cities and we have many many Erasmus and exchange students because we uh when Erasmus come here they're not only people that are part of the Erasmus program but also international people and we are we have many many active members from a local point of view as I told you before it's us here we are we are not so many people but we are a small group of people that have this kind of vision the international dimension of life the vision of the students helping students the fact that we are all different but actually we are all a unique group then talking about the the practical point of view only with ESN you can enjoy these activities we carry out many many activities for example the sport activities we may do football matches and many many matches then about the trips we go to Rome to the international cultural event that is so so cool that you can meet all Erasmus from all Italy then we do many trips about the carnival in Venice the one in the one we go all summer and we enjoy our trips then another one is the social Erasmus where we actually from the pandemic point of view now we couldn't make many many events from this point of view but also from the point of view of the trips and sport activities but we try to carry activities online for example about the social part we did many activities about the raising awareness on social inclusion on gender equality on many things on environmental sustainability so we talk about also the SDGs of the European Union then talking about another activities that is so cool here in Siena and we hope to make this one another another time maybe September is a city tour also recommend to you to to ask your ESN section when you go on Erasmus to give you a tour why because it's the best option is the best way to know to get to know better the city and to found to find new people and to yes and to meet new people then another one in order to meet new people is the tandem where it's called the linguistic tandem because you meet new people and you address to the to the other people while talking in another language for example I'm Italian I want to talk in English and then I address to the English person and then all it goes like it goes by itself but you can do all these activities only with your ESN card what is ESN card is a card is the membership card of ESN Erasmus student network you can find these type of card all throughout network so it's not different from the Italian one the Spanish one and the other one it's a proof that of the membership of an ESN section and you can use it for as a discount card in many many cities and remember this is very important for you that you are going to UK not all UK has ESN section for this reason if your Erasmus city is not present an ESN section you can make your ESN card with us so you just ask us later I will tell you our addresses you can ask us a question and then we will give you your ESN card if you don't have your section in your Erasmus place another discount is Ryanair which is one of the coolest one is one of the main advantages of your ESN card is one of the huge partner we have you have four flights with the 10% of discounts and the free check-in luggage of 20 kilos so you can imagine how many things you can carry with you thanks to Ryanair another one is Flixbus you can have the 10% of discounts with some vouchers so you can when you can go to make some trips you can use these discounts but there are many many discounts in the official page what happens when you go on Erasmus I told you to find your ESN section but what does what is the physical place where the ESN ESN is is the office normally is the office for example here in Italy in Tiana we have one in Via Banchi di Sotto 55 and you can meet us it's an info point you can we can give you your ESN card and also when we will make events you can have your events tickets um ESN Italy not only ESN Tiana but all ESN Italy promoted two activities actually two programs that are very very helpful for you the first one is the body system which is a program promoted by ESN Senages in collaboration with the University of Siena through which the Erasmus students are matched with students of the University of Siena but and you you will ask me why it is important for me that I'm going on Erasmus why because you when you go on Erasmus and you find your section you can ask them a body so a body is a person that we will be will be always with you for example my body went when I went on Erasmus he was there waiting for me at the airport so you will meet the first person you will meet that is part of ESN and we will tell you maybe we'll give you some advices about the bureaucratical part of you from the university point of view um then maybe some tips about how to live where to go um where to live so it's very very important and we ask you I think we recommend you to to ask for for one body then another initiative that is so important is ask Erasmus actually this one goes before the body why because um from now on now that you are asking me of a mobility you can ask for a person that is kind of a body but actually is an Italian student who where before you who started a mobility before you in the same country in the same city or maybe also in the same university so you will meet all these people that can um can help you I always say that if when I did my Erasmus I had a person I could feel the form of asking Erasmus I would be I wouldn't have so so many fears when I when I went on Erasmus because thanks to this platform you will have a match with the person that went before you on um your Erasmus destination um here I think here yes here you will have all the link the Erasmus form is open till May so we recommend to you to sign up for the form they will ask to you maybe about the university which course um then maybe some of your info maybe yes your email uh and then you will in few months you will be matched with a person so you can ask him her whatever you want about your mobility maybe you can you can find the person that went exactly in the same place at the same period that you want to go on Erasmus so it's a very very wonderful tip for you so here you have all the information then here you have all our contacts so when you want you can send us an email you can write to us on Facebook on Instagram we have the website wherever you want we are available 24 hours a week we are already there we are always there for you so you can ask us whatever you want we can give you all the tips we can match with you to the person that already went on Erasmus maybe in the same place that you were before and also if you want to talk to us about some fears about what do you think about this mobility is we are always there for you because we already went on Erasmus we know what do you feel and we know that will be a wonderful experience even though this pandemic situation but you won't have problems because will be the best solution the best thing you chose in your life so thank you for your attention if you want to leave you a little bit more your these contacts thank you thank you sarah thank you thank you very much does Gerlando want to add anything is it fine it's fine okay thank you very much so we we finished our presentation but we read some questions on the on the chat on the chat and so let's start with trying to answer all your questions please remember that in case a specific question or link to your specific situation you can always contact us on our mail address erasmus.out at unicy.it and also we we have a virtual desk which is open on monday wednesday and friday from 10 to 12 if you want to contact us through that you must book 15 times 15 minutes of time during the two hours and we will be in contact one-on-one on the on the web okay so let's start with the with the question so let's go with the first one she seems to be to be questioned about okay what is what what is the deadline to to indicate a shorter period than the one which has been assigned so there is not a deadline but of course the first thing to do is to choose if you leave for the whole year for the full year or for one semester or one term and so once that you have decided this on the basis also of the academic calendar you will you will decide when you would like to leave and before that time you must agree with the host university that that period is fine for them and so I would say that you receive a message from them including the academic calendar and the course the course catalog and then you decide your plan of study and according to that you also decide the period that you would like to stay abroad and it is this result to be shorter than the given period you will inform the host university through the the the documents the modules that you have to send them back or answering their email and also you will inform our office but for what concern our office as I tried to say before there is not a specific deadline the the first we know that the first we know that we have some more available money because we you stay shorter so you receive less money but there are no other consequences because there is no there is no students who work without money so we don't scroll our list so does it make much the difference if you tell us before or after about your period shorting but inform us and the more informed the more information you you send without exaggerating the best the easier is for us to to manage your mobility at the best the next question sorry to interrupt you but I have another meeting I have another meeting in a few minutes and so I hope that this event has been an important occasion for all of you students and I thank you Professor Anderson and Barbara Rossi and the other colleagues and of course please not hesitate to do your questions so we are here to reply you and good luck good luck for your busy important experience thank you thank you Anna Lisa thank you so next question and if we decide not to go to the UK mobility our spot goes to the next person in line or is it lost it is lost and the selection is close also because of the deadline in which Professor Anderson mentioned and also which which characterizes all the host university there are deadlines to be respected and so this process we are even a bit late compared to the deadlines which the university have in order to send you the information and to receive your application back so that will not be any further assignation of mobility is for the UK university for the academy here 21-22 so this is also this includes the fact that you can decide in case you want to renounce with rule your mobility think it over very well because you know you are not if you if you did not apply maybe your place will be taken by the next candidate in the list but at this point at this stage this is not valid anymore so take your decision carefully with and take your time to decide what you really want to do next question I think that is the question important which regards all of us how will it work for the next time this is a mysterious question I would say because we don't know actually we don't know I don't want to spend minutes over this question because I really don't know this is not a question for the university even if I understand that from from certain point of view students do expect to be assisted or to be followed also from this point of view because this is and it will be an important point to be allowed to live and stay abroad we don't know yet also about that but it seems that it will go like that but we don't have a service or we don't have a reservice so we don't have any special access to the vaccine campaign for those students living abroad so if you want to write as an email about this this issue maybe we can ask to the to the authorities of the university if something is going to be done and and that is respect but at the moment we don't have informations about it as far as I know I think that I'm quite afraid about this aspect and then then for those who got both the European and the UK mobility can we send the application to both the university and then decide which one to go yeah you can do that that's a good somehow it's a good it's a good idea because because the application stage the application phase so we have I repeat this process because maybe at the beginning it was too much information so the process goes like that first you apply you are selected or you're not selected if you are selected you are nominated to the host university the host university does send you a message and ask you for some documents to be sent to them before ourselves and deadlines you do that and that's a kind of it's a kind of father application that you do directly to the host university so the fact that the University of Siena gave you that destination because you were good enough or you were the best who applies for that destination does not automatically imply that the host university will accept you and will accept your plan of study so one when you apply to the host university you are asking them to be accepted and to to be allowed to attend certain courses or certain dialectical activities and the story ends when the host university writes you your welcome we wait for you on the 15 of September for our orientation week and your plan of study is accepted and you can attend the selected courses that's the happy end of the story this process sometimes we have to to change our our courses we have to to contact us our office because there are some problems which could be solved with our help so if the process is not smooth we can intervene and try to solve the problems during the process but the process the process ends when when you are accepted and your plan of study is accepted so to answer the question is it a good idea to apply to both universities you have been given yes it is because you don't if you if you withdraw now your places will not be taken by the next student so it's quite mutual if you if you if you keep the the mobility or you withdraw that at the same time you you keep the two doors open of course until a certain moment because at a certain moment you will have to decide and inform all the parts about your decision because otherwise it is not very nice to keep the thing open too long but at this stage this could be a good idea for the reason I try to explain okay next question for the university will ask language requirements then pass obtain it at the linguistic center of the University of Siena is it valid or not I don't know if Professor Anderson can help me with this question because she mentioned the language requirements and certificates and my my my reply is that is that it depends on the host university so it depends on how how tight these requirements are in general I don't see very well this option I don't think that the this the certificate obtained with the linguistic center could be compared could be enough for for these language requirements of the host university but of course it depends on the language requirements Professor Anderson can you help me with that well I don't know what university is so I would need to look at their at their requirements for example Birmingham for less than six months does accept a declaration saying that you have a bit sufficient to have a declaration on University of Siena letterhead paper so I know that about Birmingham I don't know it about other universities at the moment I can't help without actually seeing what they accept or don't accept okay so your your individual university will will say I mean if you if you want I'll I'll share just to show you okay so for for example okay for example Birmingham had let me see if I can open that okay just to show okay but other universities may also have something similar okay um the ah I've got the wrong one excuse me the sorry okay which I want to see I have looked at it let's say that there is a sales set of the university including some that are not of my competence for example work and so if you need something to see what are the requirements of the single university let's say I'll talk to you later okay if there are some problems if I add a term here I mean several students have already been in contact with me if there are others and I can help you if there are some other volunteers but let's say it's useless to tell them what to accept they don't accept without seeing exactly their language everyone is a bit different there are those who take C and I let's say with a certain level that is even lower than a C1 there are others who want who want to say twice etc there are others still that precisely like Birmingham also others declare that it is enough let's say for less than six months obviously a declaration of this type so I frankly think what Tiziana said or may have that the labor is supreme to reiterate this inventory visto che diciamo per sei mesi e e possibile diciamo andare con una procedurie di visto relativamente snello mi sempre avevamo molto molto opportuno diciamo prendere vostro tempo e controllare un attimo diciamo queste requisiti linguistici quello che posso dire sei e vostro università la vostra università sembra che voglia un c e i ok c'è ancora la possibilità fino a domani mattina di descriversi al c e i di giugno tramite l'università di siena quindi se c'è qualcuno che sa già che un c e i con un certo livello che può essere in alcuni casi come detto diciamo più basso di una di un si uno si ha già capito che per la vostra università e uno dei requisiti che hanno bisogno di un certificazione ed è uno delle certificazioni che ci vuole contattemi pure e vi spiego diciamo come interfacciare con con la collega per iscrivervi al al al mesame mi dispiace io oltre a questo diciamo in questo momento non ho altra informazione come ho menzionato se dovessero chiedere un else e fattibilismo diciamo tramite il british council di roman però non escuro cioè a meno a meno due delle università che sei voi io non non non non stanno richiedendo diciamo am certificazione per meno di sei mesi non so sicura però di altri mi dispiace ma è molto complesso la orientarsi perché poi sempre che che che stiamo anche a giornar di siti in questi giorni questa è la mia impressione quindi non so se è utile o meno questa input ciziana non ti sentiamo per poca motiva yeah thank you I had so yeah the question was still about language requirements and one student is saying that she has been asked for the c one level but that she doesn't think she will manage to achieve this level at the end of her her first year so she will she will not have the level as requested so is there a way to solve the matter she is asking and also as professor Anderson just just also said and I did it also please forward the message that you got from the host university where this request is mentioned so that we can read and try to understand how tight these these request easy there is a margin ad manoeuvre there is a way to to to pass this problem to solve this problem and in that case we are happy to help we ended the linguistic center of course that is the proper the proper office for this yes I think that I think that this this suggestion on ciziana's part if you've received an email and it talks about if it gives links if it if it talks about language requirements um um forward it to to tiziana right to erasmus out so that she can actually look at the link okay and and tiziana if if for some reason it looks you know we can also um talk if you want I mean if you if it's useful to consult because I've looked at a few of them but I mean the first thing to do would be to send it through to tiziana you know um so that they so that she can check exactly what's required okay because it's a little bit complicated in some cases they want a certain level if it's under six months and more if it's more than six months that's why I think it's important for maybe to share the link with tiziana I think that would be the most practical thing okay thank you and also the next question looks would be the same uh dara requires 12 and other certification done the last two years ago how can you help us with our CLA certification for this uh yeah that's here is a little to me is a little bit more clear than there is a difference among the TOEF certification and the CLA certification so if it's a clearly said that they want the TOEF this is too hard for me to say correctly and this is not the the CLA certification so this is another thing but still the suggestion is to forward the link or the the message where this is said so that we can better understand how far we are from from the request and if we can manage somehow to solve it then the next question for what should we address to the professor who was indicated as the the referee what I mean the teaching the teaching part the academic part is very important and my colleague from the student office said that all the recognition the credit recognition procedure passes through the teaching board so the office the student office does transmit your request of approval of your plan of study abroad to the teaching board and they they this is the body which is in charge of the decision and about the approval of this plan of study and so this is this is how it works but in the meantime I mean for for deciding in order to decide which courses you would like to attend abroad you could also address your request your DAPS your request for help to the academic coordinator of the exchange I must say I must say that not not all the academic coordinators are so well informed and prepared and available as professor Anderson is some of them and do not but not because there is no fault in that but that's because maybe this is an agreement that they received from another professor who retired so they are not well informed about their specific university or they do not have enough time to to to follow the student probably by this it's a few of them I must say that there is a general availability of all professor to help students to go abroad and to achieve credits abroad so and this is to say that you and help could be received also from the academic coordinator of the exchange even if the body in charge of the recognition procedure is the committee of an editor of your degree course and so there are two figures let's say you can you can refer to one in one if the academic coordinator of the exchange that is mentioned in the in the destination description that we publish together with the call and the other one is the president of the teaching board that you can contact to have suggestions or to have a pre approval of your plan of study if this was the question because it was not completely and you have so much to understand let's say that it is actually a complex moment but you need to let's say not to work well I for example you sent me to let's say to have a panoramic also the link of the durham university is talking about durham d u r h a m right yeah the previous question was about that for example the question was from a foreign student ah okay so better english this time especially see ah okay pardon me okay so if it's um if it is from durham and it was a student who is not an e u national then it between being an e u national and not an e no national so if the person for durham um was an e u national so an italian citizen for example they don't need for for at least for six months they don't need the um the toy fuller the elts but for more but if it's a non e u national then yes it's probable okay see this is why it's very important for you to be in contact with tiziana because she knows you know whether or not you're an e u national or not there is in fact a distinction there okay i just wanted to um so you know um to to clarify that because i went on to the to the links that you provided um um tiziana in fact um it does make a difference if you're an e u national or not okay thank you thank you thank you for these uh clinicians yes and next question there are a few more visa and medical insurance uh to who they must be requested and uh before which deadline so i think we we spoke about this uh with you the student was with us at that moment but we we talk about this issue and so to whom they must be requested it must be requested to the immigration office and before which deadline yeah it will be specified it depends on when you intend to leave of course so depending on on your envisage departure you must ask for the for the visa and you must be must be ready with your medical insurance depending on when you would like to leave so that is not a fixed the date in the year but you must get an appointment and be ready with the documents that are requested before the appointment is it correct professor and if yes i think it depends on whether or not the person needs the the the the visa for more than six months then my understanding is that um it's important to start soon but i believe i i believe that the request has to be within three months of departure so if for some reason they're leaving in the second term it might be too early to actually put in the request but they should definitely find out how to do it but but uh but if they're they're going from for for under six months and are in EU national um then it will it will take less time because it's it's not the complete you know the the student visa it's a shorter one i'm not sure if that's clear yeah so i don't know depend i think it will depend if it's an EU national or not and whether or not it's more than six months or not yeah a few more questions the YELTS is accepted also after two years from the date when it was achieved or should we do it again so the YELTS certification is accepted also after two years from the date uh accepted by by whom by which by the host university or in general the validity of the certification is a two years in general so please please forward as the message where you are asked about these these these language environments and certifications so that we can read who is asking that where where you found this information and you can answer you more properly than uh and now and then staying six months would be considered over or under the six-month threshold i think that it's it's six months when you six months plus one day it's two more than six months i think it's a way to be considered the six-month thresholds which which in practice you know is either is one term you know either the first term or the the second term right if you're if you stay for the whole if you stay for a term it's under six months um right because it's either from the end of september until the end of january usually and then end of january to beginning of june more or less right titiana yeah yeah i should think about it because also because when we when we issue the certificate uh which which helps with the with the visa obtaining procedure we will indicate the we will talk we will talk in terms of academic calendar so it's not a vacation certificate but it's something linked to the to the university organization so that's correct so next question what about the students who only had to write their thesis their thesis abroad and Barbara Rossi mentioned this possibility so i don't know from which point of view you are asking this question that i see three three three points of view first point of view is that not all the university accept students making research for their thesis this is this is in general not just not just for uk all the host university who participate who participate in the rasmus program um can can opt for not accepting student for to make research for their tenses this is because there is a difference among having students in the classroom so being a 100 student or 110 students because there are 10 around the students in the classroom does not make much difference it makes but not this much which is another case if you have one student who is making research about the know what in a lab or must be must consult some some ancient documents so there must be someone following his research her research so there must be a professor or a academic staff who who really helps with with the student with his research and and can certify that he achieves some results while he was a he was making his research in the host university so this creates another kind of a of a of a difference in the host university and so not all the university do accept students to make their research for their thesis so please check this first with the host university is if this is not really stated in the in the application routes and if you are accepted by the host university and this could be facilitated by um having an academic contact in the host university and this academic contact could be facilitated by the academic coordinator of the exchange this is the case of some professor who have colleagues and they work on the same subject area they make the same field of research and this would help you to to be included in the group and to to to to work on your thesis together with this team so this is an idea situation in all other cases you must pass through the international or an office and they and they can accept you or not for having your thesis research there the second point of view is the point of view of the student's office as our colleagues said before if you go to if you go abroad to make a search for your thesis this is feasible and can be evaluated can be considered in your academic curriculum as something plus something extra something to be say consider in terms of credits or all of additional points in your final dissertation also it depends on the rules on the rules of your degree course so each degree course your role has a rule regolamento and in some regolamity it is mentioned that if you go abroad for your thesis you are given an additional point in your final dissertation or that you are given three credits or whatever but this process is still through the teaching board approval so if you go for your thesis abroad you must communicate you must inform through the learning agreement the comitato for the didattica and they must agree with your with your proposal and they and in this case your work done abroad for your thesis will be properly recognized then there is a third point of view that is our office because at the end we will we will have we do have to report all the activities which have been carried out by our students also in terms of credits so if you if you for example if you had a mixed program so if you had some courses if you took some exams but also you made some research for your thesis and this is this gave you a number of credits we will have to report these to the to the european commission so it will be interesting to us also to know what you actually did during your period of stay but we don't we don't limit no way in any way these these activities we just had to report about them that's question for about financial financial contribution i did not understand if upon our arrival in uk we will be given the 80 percent of the financial contribution which are due to us okay i said this uh some hours ago but i repeat and the it will upon your arrival i mean after your arrival after proving that you actually start your mobility in uk this is made through the erasmus certificate and through the boarding pass to be sent to our email address after that we start the payment procedure for the grant and for what concern european money the erasmus european money it will be given the 80 percent of the total due be careful that the total due could not correspond to what is written in the table that is on the web because we pay the this first installment on the basis of the financial agreement that you are that you have to to to leave us to present 15 years about 50 sorry about 15 days before the actual departure so you you send us your financial agreement what is said that you're gonna spend your erasmus period from the 15 of september to the 20 of december for example and on the 16 of september you are in uh london and you send us your certificate and you are boarding pass and we start the payment procedure and we give you the 80 percent of the total due for the three months that you indicated to stay abroad in the financial agreement because we said from september to december and we give you the 50 percent of the ministerial money if you are in the in the list of those receiving also this money and especially for uk we pay you a 500 euro extra which are meant to to help with the with the extra expenses of the medical insurance and visa requirement where it this is must be paid as professor understood show up there are some costs linked to the this obtainment so this is about the financial contribution if you have more questions and always contact us on the next question are there specific procedures to be followed in order to be able to write the thesis abroad this is answered before hopefully you heard the the answer another question if a student goes abroad for the thesis and decide to stay less than nine months for example six months will be recognize all the credits of the forexing credits and forexing credits by whom again i mean remember that if you go for your thesis abroad it doesn't mean that you will be graduated at middle sex university or at royal honours university you will be graduated in sienna so your your curriculum ends in sienna and you will be graduated of the university of sienna who spent a period abroad in the period abroad you made some research on your thesis and this can be evaluated and considered and can be written in the diploma supplement for example and in order that this happens you must follow the recognition procedure and you must include in your learning agreement the description of your of the work you did for the thesis and and also the number of credits that that will be recognized for the thesis but the fact that you go abroad for your thesis does not imply automatically that if for the final test from a final you have 18 credits it doesn't mean that if you go to royal hallway for your thesis you will get 18 credits because the 18 credits are given to you after your dissertation after your final dissertation regardless if you went abroad or you did not go abroad this is not i'm trying to explain i find it not very easy to do that but hopefully it was clear otherwise please contact us contact us or in contact and all contact the students office because they will tell you how to make it evident that you go abroad for your research thesis and they will tell you which steps specifically to follow for your degree course um okay once that we left that's that we are abroad could we come back to Italy for a short period and then leave again and continue the mobility or can we come back all at the end okay we don't we are in the office we don't come with you coming and going from from abroad but of course i'm joking i would like to do that but not at the moment the Erasmus has a start date and end date we don't we don't interact nothing so you start and you can start during that period you are an Erasmus student you are in mobility and you cannot have exams in Siena and there cannot be theoretical activities carried out in Siena during your Erasmus period because during that period you are given a financial contribution you're given an insurance you're given a status of an Erasmus student and you are not allowed to take that optical activities in Siena if this was the question but of course if you come back because it's your grandfather birthday or whatever can be a personal reason you are free to do that of course it must be a short period it's completely up to you from the financial point of view but you can do it if this was the question okay if you want to stay longer no okay if you want to stay shorter then the the period should we attend the message from the most university yes i would say that you must wait you must wait for the for the for the first contact with the host university and i said at the beginning this is very important if it didn't happen that you got a message from your host university and this will not happen in the next few days please inform us because that could be a problem because i nominated all of you already i finished one week ago even before one so they did not contact you maybe i made a mistake or there is something i have all the information and i did not progress and so please inform us and after that you receive this first message you can start communicating with them and also agree agree upon a shorter next the question is not the last but almost the last is the visa contribute provided by the university given before after the article just like every other contribute we had the discussion about that because we are aware that this kind of contribution would be more helpful to receive it before leaving we know that but at the same time unfortunately many students do take the money we did it before and then it's very hard to have the money back even if they decided not to do it anymore for any reason so this is why we we are not able to give money before you prove that you actually started the mobility so this money with 500 euro as soon as possible after then you are in the host university and you send us the certificate okay and last question in this moment my colleague is not here to apply to the host university i have to send a transcript with all my information i i did not understand how to get it and of course the transcript it is it is another information you must verify which information they have because normally if you be asked you are on a graphical data and your data mobility and the transcript of records showing the your premium science so for the past two of course it's quite easy for the academic information you must ask this transcript to the student's office and deliver you the the information this transcript or they will send it to us and we will translate it to the host university so it depends on how they have to for this transcript that they have to send that they have to be in english how do they have to return to the student office i mean which documents exactly they have to ask in italian so because they have asked it is not i mean it is a historical certificate so they have to ask a historical certificate in english or there is another way of saying that they have to no professor you are certifying the story in english yes here okay and i understood well the historical certificate and if they say that for reasons of racism it seems to me that it does not have a cost or a share so it does not have a cost if it should have it we have found it now it has come back to me i'm talking to simona because she knows these things more than me so we have found a way to not make the students pay i mean the student offices sent to us these certificates and we transmitted them to the host university in particular to the address where the student has to go there is a problem now however that is much more frequent that often the application is online for which the student has to upload the document throughout the phase of the application and this makes this procedure we have found to avoid the payment of the certificate it makes it difficult and you can make it go to you and then send it to the students because they are the ones who have to upload it, i don't know if i'm wrong yes in fact when you want to upload it if you want the certificate so you want it now okay i'm consulting with simona because she is the one really with all the 500 students we're not going to okay so she's more afraid about it and she's saying that yes if it's to be uploaded and you must have it in your hands to to to upload it then you have to pay the fee the fee for the certificate to the student's office so student must refer to the student office because all what is about the academic career is a work for them and but then they will have to pay the the fee to get the certificate in their hands some universities but not not all at all and can accept the printed version of the of the career from the secretary online of the student but then that's in italy so they should accept these are an official version and a translation by the students so sometimes they they do accept it but when we speak about uk university i'm not this sure that they would accept okay so they'll need to ask for a certificate in lingua inglesa yeah see okay it's a cost okay question a medical doctor thank you i don't like the solution but i'm sure to find another one okay thank you thank you so that was the the last question and so it's time to finish our session hopefully it was useful and once again thank you so much for those who spoke and help us with the only the a bit complicated matter but i'm sure that if we prepare things on time and if we keep in contact and try to to share the information and to keep update about these new things because the ratmos is not new at all but these are this situation of uk is new to all of us and include a combined combined with the the covid pandemic and all the stuff it makes things a little bit more uncertain but if we keep us informed and share information i'm sure that we can find the best solution to solve all the problems so thank you professor anderson for your free and presentation and very helpful information and also for speaking the good english much better than we do no i just wanted to say i'd like to remind the students that the the ufice international also for years has done an amazing job in supporting students going to non european destinations all of the overseas you know the band the overseas so you know a lot of students have continued to go to places that are much more complicated than the in the uk we're talking about russia we're talking about south okay so please don't be discouraged it can be done and and there are and and they're there to help okay they've done an amazing job for the us for the russia you know there's a lot of places that are have been complicated a bit more complicated for years and students have gone and really really benefited from the period of study okay so don't get discouraged just because it's a little bit more uh you know complicated than continental europe at this point it can still be done okay so thank you and